Consturction of thin timepiece

ABSTRACT

Two bridges of thin sheet material are spaced apart by means of pillars having a plurality of shoulders. A third sheet member is held intermediate the two sheet members by means of shoulders on the pillars. A portion of the intermediate sheet member is turned at right angles to the remainder of the sheet and is apertured for reception of the stem. The intermediate sheet member also serves to hold in place gears between the third sheet member and one of the two bridge members during emplacement of the other bridge sheet member on the pillars.

United States Patent 151 3,706,196 Kurita [451 Dec 19,1972

[54] CONSTURCTION 0F THIN TIMEPIECE FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS Inventor: Hirohisa Kurita, Shimosuwa-machi,

Japan Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Suwa Seikosha,

Tokyo,Japan Filed: July 27, 1971 Appl. No.: 166,372

Foreign Application Priority Data July 29, 1970 Japan ..45/660l6 US. Cl ..58/52, 58/59 .Int. Cl. ..G04b 29/00, G04b 33/00 Field of Search ..58/52, 63, 73, 59, 139, 140

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2/1970 Wuthrich ..58/59 3/1971 DuBois et al... ..58/59 9/1887 Junghaus ..58/63 X 120,297 4/1926 Switzerland ..58/73 300,364 7/l954 Switzerland... .....58/59 777,771 2/1935 France ..58/52 Primary Examiner-George H. Miller, Jr. Attorney-Blum, Moscovitz, Friedman & Kaplan [5 7 ABSTRACT Two bridges of thin sheet material are spaced apart by means of pillars having a plurality of shoulders. A third sheet member is held intermediate the two sheet members by means ofishoulders on the pillars. A portion of the intermediate sheet member is turned at right angles to the remainder of the sheet and is apertured for reception of the stem. The intermediate sheet member also serves to hold in place gears between the third sheet member and one of the two bridge members during emplacement of the other bridge sheet member on the pillars.

4 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures PATENTEn DEC 19 m2 SHEET 1 OF 2 INVENTOR. HIROHISA KURITA 664 Mime 1M ATTORNEYS PATENTED E I912 3.706; 196 SHEEI 2 OF 2 INVENTOR. HIROHISA KURITA BY wwww ATTORNEYS 1 CONSTURCTION OF THIN TIMEPIECE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Conventionally, a stem in a watch is held inplace by means of a stem block disposed between two bridge sheet members. While the sheet members themselves are thin, the thickness of a stem block adequate for supporting a stem in such that the overall thickness of a timepiece having such an assembly is greater than is desired. Furthermore, assembly of the various gears, shafts,and pillars associated with the stem is a difficult operation so that considerable skill is required for making the assembly and considerable time is expended in the process; These factors increase the cost of the watch and make it difficult to .manufacture such watches in mass production.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In a timepiece including a pillar construction, two bridges are spaced apart by pillars having a plurality of shoulders. A sheet member is held intermediate the two bridges by shoulders on the pillars. A portion of the intermediate sheet is turned at right angles to the remainder and is aperturedfor the reception of a watch stem, thereby functioning as a stem block. The intermediate sheet is thin, making it possible to reduce the overall thickness of the pillar construction. Moreover the intermediate sheet, in combination with one of the bridge sheet members serves to hold gears and shafts in place during emplacement of the second bridge sheet member on the pillars.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a means of holding a watch stem in place without using a stem block.

Another object of the invention is to provide a means of reducing the overall thickness of a pillar construction.

A further object of the invention is to facilitate the assembly of a pillar construction thereby making the pillar construction suitable for mass production and lowering costs.

Still other objects and. advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING For a fuller understanding of the invention, reference is bad to the following description taken in connection DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A timepiece having a pillar construction in accordance with the present invention is shown in FIG. 1

wherein the two bridges 11 and 12 are spaced apart by pillars l3 and 14. A third sheet member 15 is supported intermediate the two bridge members 11 and l2'by means of shoulders on the pillars 13 and 14. The third sheet member 15 has a portion 15:: which is turned downward at right angles to the remainder of the sheet 15. This portion has therein an aperture 16 in which watch stem 17 is rotatably and slidably mounted.

The third sheet member 15 can be thin because its rigidity is increased by the presence of the downwardly extending portion 15a. Moreover, when the third sheet member 15 is fixed at the intermediate position between the bridge sheets 11 and 12 by the pillars 13 and 15, the rigidity of the assembly is such that no further fixing parts are needed. Also, the precision with which the various components of the assembly are fixed with regard to each other is greatly increased.

A further advantage of the construction of the present invention is that assembly of the construction is facilitated. For instance, the shaft of gear 7 passes through aperture 19 in the third sheet member 15. Similarly, shaft 20 of crown gear 18 passes through aperture 21 of third sheet member 15. Also, pawl 22 is mounted in aperture 23 of the third'sheet member 15.

In the assembly of the pillar construction, the various members ,of the gear train are placed between the apertures in the third sheet member 15 and bridge member 12. The apertures in third sheet member 15 in combination with those in bridge member 12 align the various components with sufficient accuracy so that it is simple to emplace bridge member 11 upon the pillar construction. I v

In addition to facilitating the assembly of the pillar construction, the third sheet member 15 makes it unnecessary to supply parts to support the pawl 22 and the crown gear 18. The reduction in components resulting from the use of the intermediate sheet member decreases the cost of the construction, and reduces the space needed, so that the timepiece can be thinner. Also, the intermediate sheet increases the rigidity of the assembly and prevents distortion and warping which could result with the passage of time. The process of punching the aperture 16 for reception of the stem 17 can be carried out with greater precision than is the case when a stem guide block is used.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those made apparent from the preceding description, are efficiently attained and, since certain changes may be made in the above construction without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

What is claimed is:

l. A timepiece of pillar construction, comprising first and second sheet members, a plurality of pillars each having a plurality of shoulders thereon, said pillars holding said first and second sheet members fixedly in spaced-apart relationship, a third sheet member held sheet member and one of said first and second sheet members.

4. A timepiece of pillar construction, comprising first and second sheet members,'a plurality of pillars, each having a plurality of shoulders thereon, said pillars holding'said first andisecond sheet members fixedly in spaced-apart relationship, a third sheet member held intermediate said first and second sheet members by 3 means of said shoulders on said pillars and a plurality of gears supported between said third sheet member and one of said first and second sheet members, said third sheet member being disposed adjacent to said gears and serving to hold said gears in position during assembly of the other of said first and second sheet members to said pillars.

s It :r s t 

1. A timepiece of pillar construction, comprising first and second sheet members, a plurality of pillars each having a plurality of shoulders thereon, said pillars holding said first and second sheet members fixedly in spaced-apart relationship, a third sheet member held intermediate said first and second sheet members by means of said shoulders on said pillars, said third sheet member having a portion bent at right angles to the remainder of said third sheet member, said portion including an aperture, and a stem mounted rotatably in said aperture.
 2. A timepiece as defined in claim 1, wherein said timepiece has a crown wheel supported between said third sheet member and one of said first and second sheet members.
 3. A timepiece as defined in claim 1, wherein said timepiece has a pawl supported between said third sheet member and one of said first and second sheet members.
 4. A timepIece of pillar construction, comprising first and second sheet members, a plurality of pillars, each having a plurality of shoulders thereon, said pillars holding said first and second sheet members fixedly in spaced-apart relationship, a third sheet member held intermediate said first and second sheet members by means of said shoulders on said pillars and a plurality of gears supported between said third sheet member and one of said first and second sheet members, said third sheet member being disposed adjacent to said gears and serving to hold said gears in position during assembly of the other of said first and second sheet members to said pillars. 